Organic materials, such as pitch, stickies, and tackies, are major obstacles in paper manufacturing because these materials when liberated during a papermaking process can become both undesirable components of papermaking furnishes and troublesome to the mill equipment, e.g. preventing proper operation of mechanical parts when these materials deposit on the mechanical parts.
Deposition of organic materials on the surface of a quartz crystal microbalance sensor is known. However, due to the low affinity of a standard surface to hydrophobic organic materials, the rate of deposition is normally low.
An efficacious and enhanced method of monitoring the deposition of organic materials is thus desired. Furthermore, a method of monitoring the effectiveness of inhibitors that prevent/reduce deposition of organic materials in a papermaking process is also desired.